This week we spend the entire hour speaking with Max Felker-Kantor, the author of an important new book, Policing Los Angeles: Race, Resistance, and the Rise of the LAPD. This book tells the story of the Los Angeles Police Department, from the Watts Rebellion of 1965, to the 1992 Spring Rebellion. When the Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts erupted in violent protest in August 1965, the uprising drew strength from decades of pent-up frustration with employment discrimination, residential segregation, and poverty. But the more immediate grievance was anger at the racist and abusive practices of the Los Angeles Police Department. Yet in the decades after Watts, the LAPD resisted all but the most limited demands for reform made by activists and residents of color, instead intensifying its power.

Dr. Max Felker-Kantor is an American historian who specializes in twentieth century American and African American history with a focus on race, politics, and social movements. He is particularly interested in the policies and institutions of urban law enforcement and criminal justice systems since World War II. He received his PhD from the University of Southern California in 2014. He currently teaches American and African American history at Ball State University.